Forget getting Netflix or Hulu Plus on TiVo-made cable DVRs

Content providers are using licensing terms to keep cable customers from …

TiVo's Premiere-series DVRs offer access to Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming service, and the company has announced that Hulu Plus support is coming soon. But if you get your TiVo Premiere from your cable company, you won't be able to access either service. Rightsholders are using licensing terms to prevent these services from directly competing with paid video-on-demand from your cable provider.

Both Netflix and Hulu have confirmed to GigaOM that the contracts in place with content providers specifically forbid offering subscription service to DVRs that are leased to customers through cable companies. Such subscription services would compete directly with TV providers' VOD services which charge as much as $3 per TV episode and $10 for a movie.

This kind of access blocking isn't new, either. Movie studios have gotten Netflix to agree to a 28-day window for access to new releases in exchange for better access to back-catalog content for its streaming service. The 28-day window is intended to help prop up dwindling DVD sales as customers continue to transition to on-demand streaming video services. It seems content providers are happy to license content to Netflix or Hulu as long as they can keep it from supplanting existing revenue sources and can find ways to try to charge multiple times for the same content.

Needless to say, customers expecting access to these services are likely to be displeased, since TiVo boasts about the features for its identical retail devices. But TiVO could be in trouble as well—the company has been hoping that deals with cable companies could help boost its dwindling user base. If the Premiere DVRs from cable companies have significant features missing, customers may opt for other options.